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Welding Beer cans

Hello,

Currently I have 6 250's in the shop that I instruct in. I have found that using a piece of angle iron to help fit the 2 can together is beneficial. Pre cleaning the cans with a stainless or brass wire brush is a must. My students practice with 1/16" 2%thoriated and we use 4043 .030 spool gun wire. After the 2 cans are tacked, the arc must be concentrated in the center of the tack to begin the welds. I have found if the cans are not cleaned properly by remiving the clear coat the arc will take the least path of resistance and melt a hole in one of the cans. A steady hand is a must, and the rate at which the filler metal is added is essential.

welding beer cans with a dynasty 200dx

A few tricks for welding the beer cans with a dynasty 200dx:
First thing is punch a hole in one of them so that the expanding gases dont blow out when you close up the last little bit of the weld.
second, use 1/16" or even .040" electrode, either 2% thoriated, ceriated, or lanthanated and put a taper on it just like you would for welding on DC. maybe not quite as sharp.
A/c balance around 60, frequency/HZ at about 100-120
Filler metal no bigger than 1/16"
use 4043. 4047 is even better because it has slightly lower melt point and wets out better with lower heat.

If you really want to strut, run a really light pass around the ridge of each can where the weld will be, in addition to all the above.

and here is mine. i only had 3/32 filler and haven't welded alum in a long time. i should have toke more time with it but just banged it out to show some one. and i didn't use any fancy settings. it is the second one i did, the first one had a grounding issue and the hole side of the can blow out.

Ive found that Monster cans work rather well...just scotch brite the paint off, and get bare alum...go to town.

I used an 1/8th" 2% thoriated electrode, used some 1/16th" rod (3003 I think), and set max at 15 amps. On a Lincoln. Gas flow was about 10cfh.

Ive tried welding cans the same way with a miller...doesn't seem to work as well, but again, so many settings I had no clue where to put them all.

The best bead I ever had was on one of the 24oz'ers and I ran from the top ridge to about an inch from the bottom before I finally burned through. Great practice for consistency, and pedal control though!